#lake louise

Lake Louise, 2016.

I was born in Alabama. I don’t remember much about it except that it was incredibly hot and humid and I was surrounded by the many other little puppies that looked exactly like me and I call brother and sister. Apart from travelling from Alabama to Alberta, I have never really left my home of Edmonton. 

However last summer, my family surprised me by taking me on the best roadtrip ever to Lake Louise and Banff. This is the story. 

Ready for takeoff! Whenever I ride in the car, I always have to sit in the back. I sometimes want to sit beside Tay, but she doesn’t let me. But that’s okay, I usually lie down and have a snooze in the back and occasionally chomp on some ice cubes. Ice cubes are my favorite.

This is my first time seeing mountains. I got so excited to smell the mountain air. The scenery is almost as beautiful as me.

After a couple hours of driving and me having a nap, we reached Lake Louise. It was absolutely beautiful. I loved looking out at the water and watching people canoe. I really wanted to join them. I barked at them a couple of times. I didn’t understand how it was floating. Taylor explained to me that they were called boats.

I was pretty popular at Lake Louise. There were a lot of people there speaking all kinds of different languages. They were all getting so excited to see me. Everyone wanted to take a picture with me. I was very good at posing with them, I have had lots of practice with Taylor. I got lots of petting and kisses that day.

After Lake Louise, we reached the hotel where we were staying in Canmore! I’ve never stayed in a hotel before. It was like a mini house. I had so much fun exploring! There were so many new smells. I loved running down the hallways. I even learnt how to open the hotel room doors. That scared my mom a bit. What can I say? I’m a troublesome pup.

On our second day in Canmore, it was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping. I got to go on plenty of walks. I loved it. We also went to Banff later in the day. I was very popular there as well. Everyone wanted to pet me and talk to me. They even let me come inside the stores. It was great. 

On the last day in Canmore and our road trip, it was raining. I love the rain, but my family doesn’t. Nobody thought to bring rain coats. I don’t have a rain coat, but I always have my fur coat on me so I wasn’t too bothered by the rain. We went inside to a Rec centre/climbing gym to escape the rain. A man came to kick me out, saying some rubbish about how dogs aren’t allowed. But once he started to pet me, he said I could stay. I have a special charm. 

So that’s the story of my very first roadtrip! I had the best time and I loved seeing all the new places and people! However, it was pretty exhausting and I was excited to return to my home and take a very long nap. Hopefully my family will take me on another trip soon. 

Love,

Oaks

though so much time hiking
was spent we took a break
at a mountaintop teahouse
that gets its supplies
by helicopter and horse
and foot

we saw animals we
couldn’t recognize
and a veritable cowgirl
then went back down again

a smiling Korean family
asked us to take a picture
and when Thomas said some
words in Korean they replied,
“we’re from California”

it wasn’t too hard a hike but
hard enough to make the tuna
taste gourmet
I never liked tuna before then
and don’t care for it now

we didn’t find a campsite
until well past sundown
and only just got lucky

Jeanne and I talked about anxiety
while waiting in the dark

anxious people either love
being outdoors or don’t